Mid Sweden University

Advertisements and other media types have, for a long time, had a strong influence on society and the general public’s view of the world and different social concerns. Advertisements are often based on the stereotypes and societal norms that dominate in whichever culture they are broadcast in, which in the long run can be harmful to those who deviate from these norms.

The purpose of the study is to investigate how different romantic and/or sexually intimate twosomes are visually represented in current Swedish televised advertisements to investigate potential differences and similarities, and to discover ways to improve their visual representation. It consists of a quantitative content analysis where different twosomes are documented, and a semiotic image analysis that examines how these different twosomes, from a design perspective, are represented visually and what they communicate to their audience.